9 Superpowers To Make Your Ideal Prospects Choose You Among the Many Accounting Firms

Are you struggling to find better clients? Is it hard to set yourself apart from the competition? Start leveraging your superpowers to get ahead.

VITAL stands for value, impact, trust, agile, and lucrative. It’s what sets great accountants apart from the rest. And it’s also an attribute that shows higher value in the services offered.

But, do you think that your practice doesn’t need this? 

Yes, it does! 

Any accounting firm can do Okay in terms of revenue. But some grow to bully the market. And some accounting firms get only the best clients and the best business.

So, who do you think makes more money and has a better reputation – a small startup or a VITAL accounting practice?

You can look at this term as the great separator. Because if you are labeled as a VITAL practice, this simply means your firm is the only choice for your ideal prospects. So if you don’t have this label, you must work to get it.

It’s possible for you because it boils down to a simple concept.

It comes down to how well you can leverage your superpowers that make your firm VITAL. 

Don’t think you have any? 

Well, here’s a crash course to help you out.

1. Decide Positioning

You may have to become a certain kind of person to attract a specific type of person to you. It may seem odd to bring up an aspect of manoeuvring social situations. But this actually applies to the world of B2B as well.

An accounting firm needs to attract the right type of clients. That’s why it’s important for you to master positioning yourself. After all, positioning is a superpower when trying to find perfect clients.

So, how do you do that? 

Think back to social interactions, like when you meet someone you like. What’s the first thing that you identify? Then, think about it from the other person’s perspective as well.

When you position your firm, you must accomplish two things.

• Identify what makes prospects look at your company and see value
• Identify what makes you look at prospects and see an ideal fit for your firm

If you can do that, then you know who you want to stand out for. Who is the client whom you need to show that you are a VITAL accountant? This should help you target the right audience and build trusted relationships.

2. Unpack IP

Unpacking your IP is something that doesn’t concern you much if you have a startup. But once you have an established accounting firm, you need to consider this step.

What does this mean?

It means that you start moving on from the standard topics and services. You now begin offering a more in-depth understanding of your services and your value. When it’s time to unpack your IP, you can stop listing your experience in tax returns and payroll.

To unpack your IP is to show that you can do more. Show that your services can transform your client’s lives and businesses. Once you build a reputation and grow your clients’ list, you can present a more detailed picture of your firm.

3. Amplify Reach

Amplifying your reach is not a hard concept to grasp. It simply means that you need to meet as many prospects as possible and reach out on multiple channels.

During this stage, you maximise your exposure. But, you also have to identify what type of clients you’re talking to. For example, are you talking to an ideal client or a vampire client?

Vampire clients can suck the life out of you. They are clients that drain the resources of accounting firms and don’t offer much in return. Clients that provide uninteresting or overcomplicated projects. And clients that you can’t charge what you’re worth.

You’ll want to target your ideal clients instead. They’re the clients that enjoy having you as their accountant as much as you enjoy them as clients.

Keep in mind that there are also radiator clients. These may not always be ideal, but they are pleasant clients. 

To amplify your reach, it’s best if you first figure out your hunting niche. It’s a great way to avoid dedicating too much time to clients that are bad for you.

When you do that, you can put all your efforts to increase your visibility to your ideal prospects – clients that you want to show how VITAL your services are.

4. Fill Funnel

Relying on referrals alone is no longer a good way to do business. Particularly when you want to grow your business and reach new levels. Social media can help your exposure, but it can also disrupt your client acquisition process through referrals.

So, here’s a superpower that helps many accounting firms stay at the top of many prospect’s lists:

The Fill Funnel.

A funnel is a journey that prospects take with your firm – from the moment of the introduction to when you close the deal.

However, funnels don’t happen naturally. You must hook people with something, like how dealers use gateway drugs. But in your case, you can simply use ebooks, scorecards, and other media.

You must offer something in return for contact information. It must be something of value that grabs the attention of your prospects. Once you have their contact information, you can work on building those relationships.

This method can provide a steady flow of new clients and help with client retention.

5. Build Authority

There’s no question that you need to show authority in your field. Your goal is, after all, to show your prospects that you are the only choice for them. But to prove that you offer VITAL services, you need authority first.

You can start building authority once you create a reliable funnel. To show authority, you have to be able to do more than offer great services. You may even have to learn how to tell people that you provide the best service.

It’s important to differentiate yourself from your competition. Do this by showing that you do things in a unique and better way. Also, make it a point to show that you offer solutions to more niche problems that no other accountant can solve.

6. Design Brand

Designing your brand comes next. Branding your firm as VITAL is not so cut and dry as you might think. It’s never enough to deliver superior content and have great reviews.

It would help if you thought beyond personal interaction. Other elements, such as logos, colours, and tags, help solidify brands, too.

It may surprise you to know that having a strong brand also helps you solidify relationships faster. It’s the same idea you see in matchmaking. There’s always the aspect of judging compatibility by physical appearance. But that doesn’t mean that lifestyle choices don’t matter too. Or the taste in music, hobbies, and so on. 

The same thing happens with branding in the B2B world – every element has meaning.

7. Run Campaigns

You must run more than one marketing campaign per year to grow your business. Creating a funnel is not enough if you can’t drive prospects into it.

Campaigns help you in a simple way, as they create additional exposure for your firm. You can also run campaigns in various hunting niches. It’s a useful tactic when you want to pivot or focus on a specific type of client.

You can also sell your hook through your campaigns. Remember, getting prospects hooked is how you get their contact information.

And campaigns don’t have to last long, either. You can run even just three or four every year.

8. Rock Sales

During every campaign, the last stage is usually always the sales stage. You have to be confident in sales meetings to run a successful campaign.

A secret to success is keeping sales meetings short – 90-minute sales meetings can be terrible. Don’t waste time or give prospects a chance to reconsider.

So, how do you avoid this?

Do your research well – it’s really as simple as that. Take more time, in the beginning, to identify which clients you want to pursue. Ask more questions and answer questions to see if you can be a good fit.

Propose a strategy session, too. Find out even more details about your prospects. Then, make sure to put your VITAL services into context. Show that you understand and can offer solutions for their pain points.

Doing this can make the sales call a mere formality in some cases.

9. Maximise Referrals

At this point, you can start using your last superpower – maximising referrals. It may seem weird to talk about referrals after client acquisition and campaigning. But is it, really?

In reality, this makes more sense. Chances are that your best referrals come from happy clients. So when you want to capitalise on referrals, it’s a good idea to make sure they come from the right people.

Would you want to risk taking referrals from vampire clients? Or would you prefer referrals from your ideal clients? The odds are that the latter can provide better fits for your firm.

This Is How You Make Your Accounting Firm VITAL to Your Clients

Sometimes, it takes superpowers and a great deal of knowledge to attract the right clients. But luckily for you, you can learn these superpowers and use them to create your own powerhouse accounting practice.

Some firms fail because they only consider their ideal clients. Others succeed because they also look at things from the prospect’s perspective. 

But it’s not all about you getting to work with your favourite type of businesses. It’s also about being the only ideal choice for your prospects. 

You can do it once you learn how to identify your target audience and how to build relationships. 

Each step along the way presents its own challenges. But there are solutions for almost anything you might encounter. The nine superpowers or principles in this article can help you navigate through tough challenges.

And once you understand that, going from introduction to sale becomes an easy process – even if it’s multi-tiered.